Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

🎉 It's Gilliam Day! We're so excited to announce the 2024 #GilliamFellows!These 50 adviser-student pairs are being recognized for their outstanding research as well as their commitments to advancing equity and inclusion in science. Please join us in welcoming them to the HHMI community! https://hhmi.news/3RZlSwr

Alejandro Aguilera Castrejón is a new group leader in HHMI Janelia Research Campus’ 4D Cellular Physiology research area, exploring mammalian embryo development. Growing up outside Mexico City, Aguilera Castrejon knew he wanted to follow a different path than his family, who struggled to put food on the table. He didn’t know he could make a living from being a scientist, but his love of animals led him to study biology as an undergraduate, where he discovered developmental biology and stem cell research and knew he had found his path. During his PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Aguilera Castrejon developed platforms that allow researchers to grow mouse embryos outside the uterus to study development in real time. He is especially interested in studying gastrulation, when patterning of the future body of the embryo begins. “I really want to understand how organs and life is formed. In the beginning we are only cells, but these go on to create a being. For me that's amazing.” Aguilera Castrejon was attracted to Janelia because of its new research area, 4DCP, which seeks to understand how tissues form and create organs and organisms. He also liked that tool developers work closely with biologists, the research is internally funded, and that group leaders are expected to do experiments in the lab. “And then I came here, and I discovered all the ideas behind the institute. It's a different way of doing science -- that, by itself, is an experiment. Janelia’s ideology, it’s very similar to my own ideas. I would like to contribute to that, and to change the way science is done.” Aguilera Castrejon says also likes Janelia’s focus on collaboration and appreciates the expertise of his colleagues and their excitement about research. “In other places, people do science just as a means of getting a salary, but here, I think people do science because they like it,” he says. Outside the lab, Aguilera Castrejon likes being outdoors and visiting museums. He also likes to workout. “I think it’s important because in the end, if you are not healthy, it will affect your whole life and you will not be able to do the things you love.” Read the full Q&A here: https://hhmi.news/3Y5fJCJ

Scientists have recently discovered some viruses using pieces of DNA known as “selfish genetic elements” as weapons against their competitors . While studying bacteriophage viruses, researchers at UC San Diego who are part of HHMI's Emerging Pathogens Initiative have found that phage viruses have weaponized some selfish genetic elements known as “mobile introns” to disrupt the ability of their competitors to reproduce.

Congratulations to Carissa Sherman, a graduate student in the Human Medical Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program (HMGGP) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, for being named one of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) 2024 #GilliamFellows! The program invests in graduate trainees and their advisors to advanc equity and inclusion in science and empower them as future science leaders. Sherman's advisor is DBMI's Katrina Claw, PhD. Learn more about HMGGP here: https://lnkd.in/gV6_wBQv #graduateprogram #genomics #genetics

Researchers have developed a gene-editing approach that efficiently corrects the most common cystic fibrosis mutation in human lung cells. The approach, from scientists in the lab of HHMI Investigator David Liu at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, could, with further development, pave the way for better treatments with fewer side effects.

Ph.D. student Déja Grant selected as Gilliam Fellow in this year’s cohort Third-year Ph.D. student Déja Grant was recently selected as a Gilliam Fellow in the 2024 cohort. The School of Graduate Studies, Meharry Medical College student is the first Meharrian to receive the award. Each year, only 50 graduate students are selected for the honor. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellows Program recognizes student-adviser pairs for their outstanding research and commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in science. The program is highly competitive, providing a $53,000 award for up to three years, offering leadership training, professional development and mentorship opportunities for fellows. Grant intends to use the award proceeds to fund her dissertation which examines how different fragments of the parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) regulate bone-metastatic progression of breast cancer. https://lnkd.in/eNhnK6hx

So excited to be backed by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) while using my research as a platform to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in science! 🙌🏽🧡💚

🧬Why should we study ancient DNA? Can studying the past help us answer the questions of today? The Science and Entertainment Exchange, a nonprofit program of the National Academy of Sciences, talks to HHMI Professor Beth Shapiro to learn more. Want to learn more about ancient DNA? Learn about the discovery of the world’s oldest DNA and find out how scientists are unlocking ancient genetic secrets about life on Earth by watching the @TangledBankHHMI @novapbs film "Hunt for the Oldest DNA," streaming for free here: https://hhmi.news/3Lr3dWo

ICYMI: We just announced 50 new #GilliamFellows! These student-adviser pairs are recognized for their outstanding research as well as their commitments to advancing equity and inclusion in science. Meet the Fellows: https://hhmi.news/3Lqw9xX

Meet Magdalena S., a Theory Fellow at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, who is developing machine learning methods to improve biological imaging. Her current work focuses on creating ways to combine the information from different microscopy images and techniques to retrieve higher resolution information in order to gain a better understanding of the underlying cellular structures. Growing up, Schneider excelled at math but was also intrigued by nature and wanted to know how things worked. She was not only interested in how animals behaved, but how cells worked and what interactions were occurring on a molecular scale. Schneider received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics at TU Wien in 2015. Interested in pursuing more applied research, she joined the Gerhard Schütz lab at TU Wien, where she pursued a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and a PhD in biophysics. Schneider said she was fascinated by being able to see structures that can’t be seen with the naked eye, leading her to focus her graduate research on microscopy methods. “Microscopy is such a fundamental method that a lot of other research builds upon. So, if you can improve that, it will help other research areas to make major improvements,” she says. During her time in the Schütz lab, Schneider worked at the intersection of theory, computation, experimental biology, and imaging. Now, her research at Janelia focuses on the development of machine learning and analysis methods for biological data. “Janelia is just a perfect place for combining my interests and being at this intersection between computation, theory, and experiments,” she says. “It's great to do science at the interface here.” Schneider says she also values Janelia’s focus on interdisciplinary collaboration. The research campus allows her to collaborate with the Saalfeld, Shroff, Wang, and Turaga labs on projects involving machine learning, microscopy, and organ development, and provides access to state-of-the-art computational and experimental resources. “Often in science, areas are really strictly confined to a certain thing, whereas most research is actually interdisciplinary — or, at least, most exciting research is,” Schneider says. “Often you cannot really put things that people are doing into a specific box. The research I'm doing draws from so many different areas that I couldn't say I am doing math or physics or biology or something specific, but a combination of all of these.” Outside of research, Schneider enjoys music and dancing. While studying in Vienna, she was in a formation dance group for Viennese waltz. She also plays the harp and piano and is currently a part of the Janelia Musician’s Network (JAMN). You can learn more about Janelia’s Theory Fellow Program at https://lnkd.in/eyeTEp5r